Hearts of Steele
by The Illusive Mann
Summary: Previous to their arrival on Pandora, the Crimson Lance were deciding which units to send to find the much sought vaults. During these trials, one woman with the help of a wise-cracking captain and his best friend, will try to persuade General Knoxx that their unit is fit for the mission.
1. Chapter 1

/Atlas Corporation Log 01/

/Captain Nathaniel Creed/

/Unit Assigned: None/

/

The training academy for the army taught me something well...the public sector is tough to work in. I fought in major conflicts all accross the galaxies. Me and my unit suppressed rebellions, prevented assassinations, and what happened? We were spat on like rats when we returned.

The media spun the conflicts that we played a part of as if we were animals. They presented photoshopped footage from the battlefield and completely ruined our return home. That day was the worst.

That was also the very same day when I quit.

Thirty men died in my unit from the insurrectionists and I felt like it was all for nothing. The casualties when we came home were not as gut-wrenching, but it still hurt. For example, my best friend Kurt was shot by some punk while he was walking his son down the street. Kurt had not seen his son Hayden for three years and nearly died that night.

His Atlas revolver was what saved him and his boy. He never forgot that and sent a message to Atlas to thank them. Five days later and he received a message back. It was an offer that he had received and this offer was undeniable.

"Thank you for the message mister Myers. As we can read from the message that you sent, you have served in the war against the insurrectionists in the outer colonies. We here at Atlas have a great appreciation for those currently serving in the military today and offer great benefits to those who risked their lives to protect ours.

We here at Atlas also offer great benefits to those who join the Crimson Lance, our premier private military service. The lance have been everywhere and recruit the best of the best to fight for a brighter future today."

All it took was a call to the recruiters office over at Atlas HQ and some enticing offers and he joined. Not even an hour after he spoke to the recruiter he had somehow convinced me to talk to the recruiter...let me just say that they were very persuasive.

Now that i'm with the lance, looking back at my experience, they promoted me to captain. They haven't assigned me to a unit yet and until they do, me and Kurt are going to be training at their state of the art training facility...in space.

/End of Log/


	2. Chapter 2

/Atlas Corporation Log 02/

/Captain Nathaniel McCreed/

/Unit Assigned: Pending/

/

Jubilation! I beat Kurt so bad that he had to admit defeat! We recently challenged one another in the holocore, the virtual reality training center on the station. The place was massive enough to contain a city and simulate battles in such an environment.

After we went toe to toe with the simulations we decided to play some war games and test our prowess. I relied on the strategies from the academy while Kurt went straight for ground and pound type tactics. In the end he had to forfeit because his supplies were too low and he pushed his troops to hard.

Once it was all over we went about exploring the rest of the station, which was filled with wonders!

Technology, more advanced than anything in the army, was all around us. Atlas this, Atlas that, they were everywhere but we didn't mind. We even ran into some Lance regulars that were in Kurt's unit. They were nice guys with families like us, well, I mean Kurt more so...

Anyways,

We joined up with them at the local bar. Kurt had a few while I sat back and watched. They made some moments worthy enough of putting up on the internet, and some singing that would be saved for later as blackmail.

The fun and games continued until the music stopped. All of the heads in the room turned to face the man behind the sudden silence, General Knoxx. The old man commanded respect, even amongst the incoherent. Every being in the room, including myself rose to our feet and saluted the one and only general of the Crimson Lance.

"So, I guess that you're all preparing for the trials?"

No one could provide a response. Of course, one would have to justify drinking and partying when answering his question. The general grinned at our collective silence and walked further into the establishment.

"By 0600 tomorrow morning, you all will be split up into individual units. No matter what your rank is, whether it be sergeant, major, corporal, whatever, each squad will have a leader and you will be out there to prove that you indeed deserve that rank. Also, this will determine who I bring with me on our next mission. Is this clear?"

With one voice all replied, "Sir yes sir general!"

"Good, now quit your drinking and get to your quarters! All of you!"

A massive crowd exited the bar without another word. The bartender received a heaping tip from the crowd that left. Kurt, the fool, left before I could help him out the door; hopefully, someone helped him out.

I made my way to the door to follow my comrades, but a rifle stopped me. It wasn't aimed at me.

"Are you the one known as Captain McCreed?" Knoxx asked.

"Yes sir!" I said as I replied with a salute.

"At ease McCreed, theres no need for formaliies around me."

I eased up a little bit and relaxed. My posture previously made me look like I was bout to wet my pants. Never before ha I previously met face to face with a general.

"Son, your skills in fighting the insurrectionists is impressive. I went through your entire file and let me say this, nobody has impressed me with their record as much as you have. Well, there was another and she's the best I have."

"Thank you sir, and by chance who are you speaking of?"

"Commandant Steele. She's currently assigned to the 3rd Starborne Brigade. They're a tough bunch of troops, but they are lacking in something."

"What could they be lacking in sir?"

"See these two men here with me?" he said pointing at the soldiers to his sides. "They're from the third and told me what the men in that unit are talking about. Steele may be a great tactician, but as for individual troops go, she can't reach out to them at that level."

"But I can."

"Bingo soldier. Your record indicates excellent leadership and strategery. If your situation had been different, you could have been in the commandant's position."

"So does this mean that I will be with the third starborne?"

The old general folded his arms and laughed, "No son, i'm assigning you to toilet dI uty for the rest of your career."

"Sarcasm?"

"Yes son, now go and join your new unit."

I saluted the general as best as I could and walked out the door. The general looked behind him as the door closed and grinned.

"Boys, the trials begin soon and your unit goes up first thing tomorrow. Go get some rest, thats an order."

As good soldiers do the two obeyed their orders and ran out the door, leaving Knoxx b/y himself. Looking to his right and to his left the general checked to see if there was a soul left in the bar and there wasn't. The coast was clear for him to pull out his communicator and finally have that chat.

"Sir, I do believe that I have found the last piece to the puzzle. The third starborne is going to be ready for deployment and soon."

"Good to hear general. Our 'hired help' at the dig site on Promethea has discovered the technology that we have been looking for. When your unit arrives there you will need to claim the site before Hyperion or Dahl can. This is crucial to your continuance as leader of the Crimson Lance, understood?"

"Yes sir, understood."

/End of Transmission/


	3. Chapter 3

/Atlas Corporation Log 3/

/Captain Nathan McCreed/

/3rd Starborne Brigade/

I had tried to meet the commandant before I closed my eyes for the night. It was all for nought. Her door was shut and as far as I knew, it wasn't a good idea to wake up your superior officer at 12 in the morning.

As I walked in to the barracks I looked up and down to see who was all in my unit. I made a note for every single man that I passed by for certain purposes. You see, in order to establish a better connection to the men you need to get to know them first. Saving each name into my echo interface I came across Kurt. I wasn't surprised to see him at all, knowing Knoxx had something to do with it.

"_Maybe it is to keep me in line, or maybe make me feel right at home_" I thought.

My rest would be on the lone bunk at the end. No surface above me but the ceiling. My name was shining brightly from the end of the bed. The rank was what I enjoyed the most about it.

Being a captain is definitely better than being a sergeant.

* * *

><p>"<em>Can you hear me?<em>"

"_Yes I can, but who is this?_"

"_My name is not important, what is important is you place in the universe my friend. What you do and accomplish in the next week will redefine the destiny of a world._"

"_Wait what!? What world? What is even going on? Hello?_"

"CAPTAIN MCCREED!" rang a voice from out of nowhere.

I sprang up immediately and nearly slammed my face into the pale faced woman in front of me.

"Captain McCreed," she said slyly "officers are supposed to get up before the men do."

"I apologize mam." I said with a strong salute. "What is my punishment?"

"Punishment?" she replied while cocking her eyebrow. "I am not going to punish you first day on the job."

I breathed a sigh of relief as she laughed.

"But if you do that again Captain then I will have you stand out on the firing range while the rookies come out for target practice! Am I clear?"

"Yes mam!"

"Good, now bring your men over to the training course. Today we are going to be testing your leadership skills. I know that the general trusts you but your record fighting the insurrectionists does not satisfy me."

"Understood. I will lead these men into battle and we will triumph."

"If you say so Captain. Let me just point out that this exercise will not be as easy as fighting farmers."

The woman commanded her guards like dogs. A snap of her fingers and her pets followed her out the door. Right when the doors shut I could hear a collective sigh of relief from the troops. She must have treated them this way before I even joined this combat unit. No wonder they didn't listen to her.

"Damn, for such a bossy commander, she has a nice ass." said one of the men.

I looked around to see who made the comment and saw Private Stelago grinning like an idiot.

"Stelago!" I belted out. "You do not refer to the commander in such a manner!"

"Why can't I? She treated you like crap and even threatened you. Why the hell are you protecting her?"

From across the room he stared me down. I closed the gap between us and stood face to face with stout individual. He kept wearing the grin that he had since he made his comment and crossed his arms in defiance of his superior officer.

"Obviously the last officer that led this unit must have not had any balls if he would allow his men to talk like this."

The barracks were filled with "oooooohs" from all around. The attitude of the men reminded me of the group that I was put in charge of back on earth. They were kids before I was ushered in and afterwards they became men, real warriors.

The difference between the two groups was one had a cause to fight for, which was stability in the universe. The other, this lot of men, was in it for the money. I was in this organization for the money as well, but that did not have as much of a central role as doing something that I know how to...fight.

"Now Stelago, I understand that Lieutenant Alvarez was a laid back kinda guy. The man had no respect for our commander, but you should."

"Remind me why I should captain?" he said, still keeping that crap-eating grin on his face.

"Why? Well maybe you should ask her when she comes back in here smartass. I've been streaming this entire conversation to the Commandant and I don't think that she to appreciates your comments."

Just then the doors on the other side of the room whooshed open. Two men came in wearing black armor. I stepped aside to let them do their part and they dragged Stelago out kicking and screaming.

"NO! PLEASE NO! They're going to turn me into target practice!"

**WHOOSH!**

Noise was not an element in the room. The men stared at he door, slackjawed from the peformance that just went down. I of course grinned from ear to ear, knowing that they would listen to me now.

"All right you maggots, grab your gear and lets move to the training facility. Lets go!"

Quickly they all gathered their armor and gear and filed out the door one by one. Kurt stopped before he went out the door and motioned for me to talk to him.

"Kurt, what is it?" I asked.

"That was a smooth move that you pulled back there man. Do you think that they are really going to kill him?"

I shook my head, "No, they would be legally reprimanded if they did something like that."

"I dunno man, the commandant sounded pretty serious earlier."

"That she did." I replied.

The doors leading outside slid open. Down the way the combined marching of boots could be heard coming our way. My eyes did not deceive me when I saw the legend come around the corner.

Master McCloud was a tall individual but the special armor that he had equipped made him a giant compared to us regulars. His small unit that followed him consisted of the most elite of the Crimson Lance. We saluted him as he passed by and he just smiled.

"Captain McCreed, you must Alvarez's replacement."

"That I am McCloud. It is an honor to meet such a distinguished soldier as yourself."

"So you've heard of my exploits?"

"Yessir. Even if I was a regular in the army we still recieved word of what some private contractors were doing."

"That is good to hear. You feel ready for deployment?"

"Ready for...wait, what?"

"Yeah, didn't you hear that Knoxx is going to skip the tryouts here on the station?"

"No, I had no idea of this. Where are we going?"

"Ever heard of Promethea?"

"Yeah, it was a neutral colony during the insurrection. Why?"

"Well we discovered an alien artifact there. If we can aquire it we could become the most technologically advanced corporation out of them all."

I could not believe it. Alien technology had been discovered on Promethea and it had not been spoken of earlier. I was pretty sure that we would have heard about something like this during the war becuase the insurrectionists could have benefitted from it. Another question floated around in my head but I thought that it would be better for me if I stopped before I dug any further.

"Sorry McCreed but me and the men need to see General Knoxx for a debriefing."

"Ok then. I'll see you on Promethea."

"Or you might not." said Kurt.

Kurt was right. They were special forces, not a bunch of regulars like us. If I was correct, Knoxx was probably giving them some sort of task far from where we were being deployed.

"All right McCreed, lets go. We have alien tech to claim for Atlas Corporation."

I followed in my friend's footsteps, in hope that our debriefing would give us more information on what was going on.


	4. Chapter 4

/Crimson Lance Log 1/

/Captain Nathan McCreed/

/3rd Starborne/

/Location: Warpspace between Atlas Hub and Promethea/

The commandant came in as serious as ever. She pratically yelled at us when speaking of the predicament ahead, and I could call it a predicament. The Dahl Corporation had already established a foothold on Promethea. After the war, they made an effort to build the foothold they needed to make their prescience known in that system and now had a military occupation on that very planet.

They sent in Colonel Solomon, a man known for his cunning in battle. He gained his fame and glory in the battle for the rust quadrant, as it was called. That area of space was one of the initial systems that humanity expanded out to and was thoroughly colonized.

Since our military relied on Dahl weapons and since EarthGov had an agreement with the Dahl Corporation they sent them to deal with the insurgents that had entered the system. Our ships had been destroyed and Solomon was given little to work with. Somehow he still managed to break the enemy's ranks and destroy the command ship. Once EarthGov reinforcements arrived the remaining rebel ships were wiped out of existence and Solomon was awarded for his leadership.

Now we were about to face her on a fairly peaceful planet that had not seen war or conflict of any kind. I managed to hear some words from a soldier named Roland. He lived on Promethea for sometime before he joined the lance. His decision to join stemmed from the "boring peace",as he referred to it as, that existed on Promethea. Adventure was something that he yearned for, especially if it meant discovering some alien tech from a vault.

During the war people spoke of these alien vaults. They were vast treasure troves of civilizations past that would open up the past to us. I personally thought that they were all hogwash. Never had I met an extraterrestrial and I do not think that I ever will.

My attention shifted when the ship jerked. Our venture warping through the universe was over, now it was time for war.

"All personnel to the drop pods, I repeat, all personnel to the drop pods. This is not a drill!"

All of the men formally made their way to the pods when a tremor rocked the ship. I fell backwards but was caught by the soldier I had met earlier, Roland I believe it was. He helped me back up on my feet and grinned.

"I guess you've never seen any naval combat?"

"No. By the time that my unit had arrived the navy would have mopped up the enemy ships."

"I guess that Knoxx wanted us to get here and fast then."

"Guess so."

Once I was in a pod I braced myself against the interior of the small space. Mechanical arms latched across my chest and firmly secured my legs as well. In moments I felt my stomach float into my chest and watched through the small window in front of me as the battle ensued.

The pod then spun around to give me a view of Promethea. The planet looked beautiful from above, much like Earth did. What a shame it was that war would be brought to this peaceful planet.

There was a warming sensation coming from the bottom of the pod. We must have breached the outer boundaries of the planet. The sensation felt better than the cold embrace of outer space that had been present before. It made me wonder if the planet itself would be that warm.

My curiosity would be sated within the next minute. The pod lurched much like it did when it was fired out of the ship. Again I felt like I could have upchucked whatever was in my stomach, but I swallowed it down. The acid burned my throat a little, a feeling that was not new.

Suddenly the pod stopped. Atmosphere was leaking into my pod, which could only mean one thing. Without any hesitation I put my helmet on and armed myself with my Atlas standard issue SMG.

BOOM! Yelled the door as it flew forward. The mechanical arms holding me in place flew off as well and released me onto the battlefield. I wasted no time in checking all of my podmates to see if they survived. Lucky for me they did. Roland was picking Kurt up off the ground.

"You two ok?"

"Yeah" said Kurt with a groan. "I think that we should have trained before we did this though. That landing was God awful."

"Man you both have some green behind your ears" Roland said with a smile. "Guess the army didn't train you guys for orbital drops."

"Thats not true Roland. We did go through plenty of orbital drops, its just that we weren't dropped like dead weight when we entered a planet's atmosphere" I replied.

"So where do you think the rest of our unit ended up?" Kurt asked.

"Turn on your HUD Captain. People in the higher ranks have a better method of seeing the battlefield" said Roland.

There was a DNA synched pressure pad in my helmet. I lightly pressed on the small device expecting for a simplistic HUD like the ones that tehy had in the army... I was sorely mistaken.

Through one eye I could see a display of the battlefield. Our units were in red of course and the Dahl Mercenaries were in green. Thus far our units have settled down and pushed Dahl into the capital city, leaving the dig site just outside of the city exposed.

"So, where is everybody?" Kurt asked.

"Well, our unit is meeting at the rally point outside of the digsite."

"And how far is that from where we landed?"

"About two and a half or so miles north of us."

"Good" said Roland. "I've been itching to do something. All of this waiting around is about to drive me insane."

"_Attention Crimson Raiders, a new objective has been given to you._" said a computerized voice.

Before our journey began our orders had been changed. My hud shifted its attention away from the digsite to the pristine capital of Promethea. I could see a shift in Roland's body language, the change in objectives did not sit well.

"Attention all Crimson Lance units, Colonel Solomon has moved the alien technology at the digsite to an evacuation site in the capital. To all of our units converge on the capital and show no mercy! You must stop Solomon from leaving this world! That is all, Steele out!"

"Ok, I was literally asking to see some action earlier, but now that the capital is involved, this doesn't feel right." said Roland. "My parents live in the capital and Commandant Steele just gave the order for an all out assault."

"Sorry Roland, but orders are orders." I replied. "If we do not stop Colonel Solomon form escaping then we will never get our hands on the alien tech."

The soldier glanced at the soil below. I could tell how he felt about this, but orders come first...then again I did stick my neck out for a brother in arms some time ago.

His name was Corporal Vladof, heir to the Vladof Corporation. I was sent a message during the seige of Kalastad, the capital of Ragnarok. Ragnarok was a mining colony established by the EarthGov. Sadly, the rebels recieved word that the mines were producing uranium, not even a year after the colony had been established and took it in one month.

The army didn't even have time to dig in before the capital was sieged. Corporal Vladof was assigned to protect the governor at the time. When the rebels took the city they held them both hostage. We were sent in to liberate the city and mostly bring back the corporal alive.

It took me and my unit all of one week to locate where they were being held and evacuated them out of the city. The army mopped up the rebels a week later and another three or so weeks until the colony was free again. The Vladof's thanked me for saving their son by giving me a prototype assault rifle that they had developed. It was made out of the same material used to make ship hulls. The weapon was light and shined brilliantly when you stood out in the sun.

I still have that rifle, believe it or not. I just haven't fired it yet. Maybe I will get to use it on those Dahl troops once we get there.


End file.
